SO YOU WANT TO BE A VIKING?

A handy guide for young readers thinking that life on a longship in pursuit of plunder might be for them.

Prospective Vikings will want to know something of the history and rewards of their calling, and so in this much simplified and newly illustrated version of John Haywood’s Viking, a 2011 title in the Unofficial Manual series, Amson-Bradshaw offers useful features aplenty. These range from thumbnail portraits of Olaf Tryggvason and other renowned Viking leaders to travel articles such as “5 Epic Places To Plunder Before You Die (Violently).” Along the way she also deals out short but rousing disquisitions on battle tactics and berserkers, weapons and gear, seagoing navigation, Viking “healthcare,” and other relevant topics. Akiyama illustrates it all in occasionally gory cartoon drawings with green and gray highlights featuring three modern children—timorous Angus, bloodthirsty Kate (both white), and Eddie, dark skinned and gung-ho—who travel back in time and are squired about by mighty warrior Bjorn and scowling shield maiden Hervor. The same modern trio tries out the life of legionaries in So You Want To Be a Roman Soldier? (2019), which is also recast for younger audiences from an earlier, longer work (Legionary, by Philip Matyszak, 2009) and likewise well stocked with historical people (only slightly more diverse than in …Viking), places, and facts. Both make a career in, say, librarianship, look far more enticing.

Salutary reading for armchair berserkers and shield maidens.